Greetings all!
Though the holiday season is in the rearview mirror at this point, sometimes it takes a little more time to get fully up to speed and back to business as usual. After an initial burst of activity, I have taken a little breather to get organized for what’s ahead, which includes the SATB forum discussed in this newsletter in previous editions, as well as that long-promised Beatles Illustrated Record show, and in addition, a whole lot of other topics that have long been on the back burner, as well as some discussions that were a surprise to me but suddenly fell into my lap. So what I’m trying to say here is: things that have been in the offing for awhile now are coming into focus, along with some really intriguing other topics, so stay tuned.
Also: a new sponsor has come aboard: DistroKid. This is a musical aggregator (and app) that should be of interest to anyone who makes music and wants to get it distributed to all the online platforms and wants to get paid for it too. I’m sure I will have more to share about this soon, but it was certainly a nice way to kick off 2026.
NEWS
It was May 2024 when the restored Let It Be film was finally presented on Disney+. But despite what would seem to be a no-brainer - issuing it on physical media, with perhaps even some bonus material - this has not (yet) happened. (Even Michael Lindsay-Hogg seemed to believe it would happen eventually, and certainly sooner than now.) The world has changed a lot since home video became a thing circa 1980 or so, with Beta giving way to VHS and (briefly) to Laser Disc before DVD took over, only to be superseded by Blu-Ray and now streaming.
Corporate distributive entities like Disney seem to be viewing physical media releases as a thing of the past (and anecdotally, record labels like Universal Music seem to be reaching the same conclusion), while much smaller indies seem to be the only ones looking to continue to issue archival content in deluxe sets the way collectors and hardcores want it. So with the arrival of the 9-part Anthology series in November 2025 and no plans announced for a physical release, there’s been little reason to expect we would ever see such a release (much less a “director’s cut”-style issue, restoring all cuts made for the current version and perhaps even augmenting it with even more restored material). But there’s been a rumbling: this website had this to say in the past week, and by reputation, their predictions tend to come true, so all we can do is wait it out.
It was about a year ago that my conversation with Ringo drum historian/author/my good friend Gary Astridge was posted. But another new one, conducted by Arsalan Mohammed for Julien’s Auctions, has gone public. This one is focused on the book we talked about, Ringo’s Beats and Threads and the way I see it, the two conversations are complementary, so do check it out if you enjoyed the first one.
On the subject of podcasts, the latest Classic Rock Album Olympics with Gary Wenstrup has gone live: this one is on The Byrds’ Fifth Dimension. If any of you listeners have any suggestions for albums we should cover, please let me know here or on the CRAO Facebook page.
SO LONG…
…to Bob Weir from the Grateful Dead (and its post-Garcia spin-offs). He was the other lead singer and guitarist and his passing at 78 comes about 14 months after the death of another co-founder, bassist Phil Lesh. There’s plenty that could be said about Mr. Weir but I will limit my commentary to the Beatles-related kind: there’s loads of intersection if you look for it. He was influenced like so many others by The Beatles’ arrival to consider taking up what looked like fun with your friends for a living.
Onstage at Fenway Park, 2016
But perhaps of even bigger impact was his connection with a pre-Mrs. McCartney Linda Eastman, when she photographed the Dead in Haight-Ashbury in 1968. He recalled her to an interviewer years later:
“First of all, I remember her face. Just her face. I remember her, yes. She pinned me right away, she wouldn't avert her gaze. I was the one who met her at the door at the Ashbury Street house when she came to photograph the band. Our manager had told us that Linda Eastman was coming by, that she was the Eastman Kodak heiress and a big-time photographer, a really good photographer.
The word was that she was so pretty and so rich that someone was going to make a play for her eventually and take the prize. She took a lot of pictures of me that day, and then we were going to come back the next day, because some guys couldn't be there. But that night I was getting all kinds of heat from the band, they were convinced that she was the Linda Eastman of Eastman Kodak, and that since she took all these pictures of me she must have liked me, so the guys were pressuring me to hook up with her. 'Do it for your fellow band members,' they were saying. She was rich and we weren't; I suppose they wanted the band to marry into all this money. We were really broke.
Their reasoning was, here was this attractive young single lady and we sort of had the same background, my family was well-to-do, so the guys thought it was a perfect match. They weren't kidding. I'd just left home the year before to go be a starving artist and I was pleased with what was happening, but the other guys had been starving for a little longer and it wasn't so much fun. They were actually trying to force-feed me to her, and it got a little uncomfortable for me and for her, you know how guys can be when they've got this plan. So I just went up into the attic and hid. It was getting a little embarrassing, and I guess she was kind of feeling it too. As if she were going to buy us equipment or something. The guys hammered each other all the time, and it was my turn. We couldn't afford a TV, so if we weren't on each other's cases we had nothing else to do. It was a way to keep ourselves amused.
There was nothing romantic going on between me and Linda that day she was first there. I was nineteen, and maybe there was a little flirtation going on, but that's all. We talked about the quality of light - I'd never had a substantial conversation with a photographer before, and she was obviously way into it. I found it interesting to hear her talk about light and shadows and colours, and then we walked around the Panhandle [of Golden Gate Park] and just looked around. It was a whole new experience for me, to start looking at things through a visually oriented person's eyes.
But there was definitely something that she had about her. She was maybe the only photographer that the guys could ever sit still for, for more than two or three minutes. When she was looking at you, it seemed as if she was staring into the window of your soul, she was looking around in there. I'm not sure about the other guys, but I certainly felt it. She was an old friend, even though we'd just met. There's probably less than half a dozen people like that in your whole lifetime. I'm a total believer in reincarnation, and I would be real surprised if Linda and I hadn't put in some time together in the past. There was that little flash of recognition. An old friend that you've just met, you know?”
Bob Weir - photograph by Linda Eastman
ANOTHER DEMISE
MTV was reported to be shutting down at the end of 2025. The pioneering music video channel that shaped careers as well as a generation’s tastes had long been superseded by “reality television” content during recent decades as public tastes shifted, but for a time its impact was undeniable, shaping careers as well as a generation’s tastes (as video did indeed kill the radio star as far as those who didn’t master visual presentation were concerned). Though it hasn’t gone away completely per se and is currently exploring ways to reinvent itself, it’s work taking a look at how Beatles world and the channel intersected.
Here is a list of songs - from 1969 on - that were given visual representation for circulation around the world at the time of their release. There’s plenty to be said about variations: alternate cuts or versions, as well as the after-the-fact promos (videos produced years after the single’s release, used to add representational content to video/dvd compilations down the road) but this is only intended as basic information to show what these guys produced when the releases were new.
During the Beatle years, most fans are well aware of the variant cuts of “Hello Goodbye,” “Hey Jude,” or “Revolution,” but we focus here on the less familiar solo catalog in the run up to MTV’s arrival in 1981. There are a couple of really excellent self-published volumes detailing everything by Jörg Pieper and Volker Path - The Beatles Film and TV Chronicle - for anybody sufficiently interested (spoiler alert - they are costly these days) but for anyone else wishing for just some basic knowledge on the varieties, check out Roger Stormo’s wonderful “The Daily Beatle” site.
Not surprisingly, Paul was far and away the most prolific producer of videos; George was the least (though once he figured out they could be done humorously he really ran with it).
Note: clips from the Let It Be film (“Get Back” - “Let It Be” - “Two of Us”) served as promos for outlets like The Ed Sullivan Show but since they were not produced as music videos per se, they are not included in this list. Last: a lot of these songs have since been represented on compilations by completely or partially new promos (John’s especially). We concern ourselves here only with what was made available at the time these songs were first issued.
1969
The Beatles: “Ballad of John and Yoko”
Plastic Ono Band: “Give Peace A Chance”
Plastic Ono Band: “Cold Turkey”
The Beatles: “Something”
1970
John: “Instant Karma” Not the familiar Top of the Pops performances but a clip job sent over earlier before the POB’s personal appearance.
Ringo: “Sentimental Journey”
Paul: “Maybe I’m Amazed”
1971
Ringo: “It Don’t Come Easy” There were two completely different versions put out at the time.
Paul: “Heart of the Country”
Paul: “Three Legs”
John and Yoko: “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” (Featured footage of the Harlem Community Choir and photos from the recording session - it’s not in circulation these days).
1972
John: produced a series of discreet films for his tracks on 1971’s Imagine album. It was released as a “video album” along with some of Yoko’s Fly music. John’s songs were:
“Imagine”
“Crippled Inside”
“Jealous Guy”
“It’s So Hard”
“I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama”
“Gimme Some Truth”
“Oh My Love”
“How Do You Sleep”
“How?”
“Oh Yoko”
Ringo: “Back Off Boogaloo”
Wings: “Mary Had A Little Lamb”
Wings: “Hi Hi Hi”
Wings: “C Moon”
1973
Wings: “My Love”
Wings: “Live And Let Die” Not to be confused with the “exploding piano” version from the James Paul McCartney TV special.
Wings: “Helen Wheels”
Ringo: “Photograph”
1974
Wings: “Jet” This one has been bootlegged but has not been circulated in a quality version since it was new.
Wings: “Mamunia”
Ringo: “Only You”
George: “Dark Horse” Less than two minutes of a performance taken from a tour rehearsal circulated at the time but that’s what George issued.
To anyone wondering: the familiar promo for “Band On The Run” was first seen publicly in 1978 and as it wasn’t made by MPL (but later adopted as official), it doesn’t make the cut.
1975
John: “#9 Dream” One of the rarest, it doesn’t appear to have circulated since ‘75, but was comprised of NYC footage shot at the same time as his previous promo.
George: “Ding Dong, Ding Dong”
Wings: “Venus and Mars/Rock Show”
Wings: “Letting Go”
1976
Wings: “Silly Love Songs”
Ringo: “Hey Baby”
Ringo: “You Don’t Know Me At All”
Ringo: “I’ll Still Love You”
George: “This Song”
George: “Crackerbox Palace”
George: “True Love”
1977
Wings: “Maybe I’m Amazed” This was a tour photo collage and only can be found on bootlegs these days.
Ringo: “Drowning In The Sea Of Love”
Wings: “Mull of Kintyre” Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, as were the next two Wings promos.
1978
Wings: “With A Little Luck”
Wings: “London Town”
Ringo: “Tonight”
Wings: “I’ve Had Enough”
1979
George: “Blow Away”
George: “Faster”
Wings: “Goodnight Tonight”
Wings: “Getting Closer”
Wings: “Spin It On”
Wings: “Old Siam, Sir”
Wings: “Again And Again And Again”
Wings: “Arrow Through Me”
Wings: “Baby’s Request”
Wings: “Winter Rose/Love Awake”
1980
Paul: “Coming Up”
Paul: “Waterfalls”
1981
John: “Woman”
George: “All Those Years Ago”
Ringo: “Stop And Smell The Roses”
Ringo: “Wrack My Brain”
August 1, 1981: MTV begins!
The first Beatle-related video aired was the Rockestra performance of “Lucille” from the 1979 Kampuchea benefit. That same concert film also yielded performances by The Who (“Sister Disco”) and Rockpile with Robert Plant (“Little Sister”) that were in rotation during MTV’s first 24 hours. But as you can see from this list, among offerings from Pat Benatar, REO Speedwagon, and Rod Stewart seen on the fledgling channel, there was plenty of Beatle-related content available to make an impression had the programmers so desired.
MTV would of course host Paul McCartney for the landmark Unplugged performance in 1991. But hidden in plain sight was their coverage of the Natural Law Party benefit concert a year later for what would be George Harrison’s last full concert. MTV sent a crew over to cover the event for MTV News, but the entirety of the rehearsal of “Taxman” and an interview did not surface until many years later.
One year later, MTV Europe staged a promotional Beatles Day, tied to reissues of the Red and Blue album on CD. They aired various promos, including restored versions of the 1965 ITV films as well as new interviews with Paul and George, plus the Magical Mystery Tour film.
The last thing I want to share here is for anyone wishing to reminisce or else discover what it was once like to watch non-stop music videos before they were pushed out of existence on the station, check out MTV Rewind: a wonderful site where you can revisit the beginning, or else tune into specific “channels”: Unplugged - 120 Minutes - Total Request Live - Yo! MTV Raps - or surf by the decade.
COMING NEXT
My conversation with director/writer Oliver Murray is next in the queue and should be up before the next newsletter…
(Go Bears!)
All best,
RR
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